


if you love my sins (then you love me completely)

by a_calipygian



Series: Safe and Sound [4]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Bottom!RK900, Fluff and Smut, Hostage Situations, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Control, M/M, Mind Manipulation, Sex, Top!Gavin, maybe slight PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:13:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21715921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_calipygian/pseuds/a_calipygian
Summary: A hostage situation gone wrong leaves Nine with some memories he thought he had repressed.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: Safe and Sound [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1178480
Comments: 12
Kudos: 97





	if you love my sins (then you love me completely)

**Author's Note:**

> hello i have returned from the grave to give you this garbage / enjoy <3 
> 
> (this is part of the Safe & Sound series so if you are new here please go back and read the three previous entries as they will be heavily referenced!)

**[ probability of success… ]**

**[ 36% ]**

Nine has never been the type of android to allow a situation to get so wildly out of hand.

**[ 35% ]**

He prides himself on being the best of his model’s series; uses his top of the range processors and million-dollar software only to his advantage to overcome even the most complex of missions.

**[ 34% ]**

His mind works faster than half of the world’s computers combined, able to deconstruct an event in a matter of seconds and preconstruct hundreds and thousands of possible outcomes for what could possibly happen next, hardly able to miss even the smallest detail.

**[ 30% ]**

And yet, he could not have seen this coming at all.

The downpour of typical Detroit rain splashes harshly against the rooftop of the warehouse building, soaking the floor and thundering violently within Nine’s audio processors. It’s loud enough that it drowns out 50% of Nine’s overall auditory, which, in any other circumstance, would be a nuisance. Not so much, however, when the only other 50% is the sound of a hostages’ screams.

The woman being held at gunpoint in front of him is covered by nothing more than a thin sundress to protect her from the glacial showers and Nine cannot make up his mind as to what is making her tremble more – the cold, or the .357 Magnum pressed to her temple. But, after not much thought at all, he concludes that it is most definitely the latter.

This is not the way the case was supposed to end. What had started off as a simple task to track down a local drug dealer and take him to the station for questioning had turned into, not only a hostage situation but a full fire ambush, to boot. The shootout had been expected, in all honesty; cropping up in at least three of Nine’s preconstructions before entering the building, but in none of those predictions had this outcome appeared. 

And how many months had been spent building up to this moment? Dan Palmer had been his and Gavin’s target since January, now, and they had barely come close to catching him once. The red ice industry had depleted significantly since Ryan Lewis had been… taken off the market, and when it suddenly spiked again early at the start of the year, Nine and Gavin had been the first officers put on the case. They had worked too hard to let it all crumble now, but how could they have ever anticipated this?

The thought of Gavin makes Nine do a quick thermal scan of the floors underneath his feet, glancing through the various different heat signatures running around in the warehouse below in the hopes of spotting Gavin’s somewhere. Though he doesn’t doubt Gavin’s ability to defend himself, especially with a gun in his hand, he still cannot shake the dread of stumbling across an all too familiar corpse on his way back down through the warehouse – so he continues to scan, and does so until he finally spots Gavin’s figure crouched behind some form of shelter on the third floor, taking cover from the oncoming gunfire.

Nine hadn’t been aware of the speed in which his thirium pump had been beating until it eventually slowed upon spotting his partner, and with only three other heat signatures kicking around the rest of the building, Nine takes solace that Gavin has the situation more than under control. Three lowlife junkies with pocket pistols do not stand a chance against him.

Though Nine staying behind to deal with the ambush they had inadvertently walked themselves into would have seemed like the safer option, both he and Gavin are aware that Nine is the faster out of the pair – not because of an arrogant nature or an inflated ego, simply because he had been made to be that way. So, when Dan Palmer had shot off to safety on the upper floors of the warehouse, Nine and Gavin had barely needed to exchange orders before Nine was sprinting after him and Gavin was firing his first bullet.

Admittedly, had Nine have known that Palmer was going to acquire a hostage along the way, perhaps their roles would have been reversed.

Where Nine is skilled at many things, dealing with situations such as this one is not his forte. The patience and compassion required when trying to get through to a human being on the brink of murder is not something that comes naturally to him, and where Nine is confident in his ability to outrun and track and _hunt_ , he undoubtedly falls short in this particular category.

Connor is different. The scale of human empathy and emotion Connor had been designed with is the very thing that makes him the best in this area, and the very thing that Cyberlife had deemed appropriate to cut right from RK900’s software. It had made Connor far too susceptible to the deviancy virus and had no place in a deviant hunter. Though Nine’s knowledge in the… social area has vastly improved and developed in the two years since his awakening, he is not ashamed to admit there are still times when finding the proper words are difficult. He had been designed to take action; to neutralize and destroy – not to chat. And par for the course, hostage situations had become a job that Connor would usually undertake alone, or with Lieutenant Anderson a safe distance away.

Nine has always done well to avoid these situations. But with no sign of Gavin or backup coming any time soon, it would seem now is the moment to finally confront it.

 _“Palmer is the most wanted drug dealer this side of Michigan, shipping out over 300 grams of red ice and god knows what else a week.”_ Fowler’s voice suddenly resonates somewhere clearly in his mind palace, unconsciously pulling him back to their briefing this morning, _“If you catch him, we have a chance of finding the rest of his warehouses and shutting them down for good. If you lose him… he might not show his face again for months. Failure isn’t an option here; catching Palmer is the only thing that matters. Nothing else.”_

The only thing that matters. Fowler’s words light a fire in Nine’s processors, that unwavering persistence programmed deep into the roots of coding that Cyberlife had put there themselves; their sure-fire way of guaranteeing their latest model would not fail even the most complex of tasks. And Nine does not intend to fail this one, or any others, for that matter.

**[ ARREST DAN PALMER AT ALL COSTS ]**

“Don’t come any closer you lump of metal!” Palmer shouts unexpectedly, finally snapping Nine from his thoughts and back to the matter at hand. The gun is shaking unsteadily in his hand and, despite his façade, Nine can tell he is just as panicked as the hostage in his arms. “Stay right where you are, or I swear I’ll shoot!”

“Oh god!” The woman cries hysterically where she’s being restrained, struggling against the man to no avail, the barrel of the gun pressed threateningly against her head. “God, Danny, no, p-please! Please, don’t, I’m begging you!”

Though Nine hadn’t originally clicked who in the world this hostage could be, the sudden use of an affectionate first time and a blindingly obvious ring around her finger when she tries to swat at his arm gives away the missing puzzle piece. Nine does a split-second scan and feels his core burn a little hotter when he confirms it is, in fact, Mrs. Palmer currently being held under gunpoint by her own husband.

“Please try to stay calm, ma’am.” Nine deems best to say, appealing to the victim first, as Connor always says. “Everything is going to be fine; I promise.”

“Shut up!” Palmer yells once again, “Don’t fucking talk to her or I’ll blow her brains out!”

Nine contemplates for no more than a moment before he decides to continue speaking, ignoring his command, “With all due respect, Mr. Palmer, you’re not going to do that.”

And it’s probably not that smartest thing to do, but Nine takes a cautious step forward as he says it, keeping his hands well in the drug lord’s sight to make sure he knows he is unarmed. There is a gun in his holster, should he need it of course, but right now there is no guarantee he can shoot Palmer without endangering his wife even further – and he needs Palmer alive. 

“And how the fuck do you know I won’t, huh?! You don’t know anything about me!” 

**[ scanning… ]**

**[ scan complete ]**

“I know you have no history of assault or violence in your record to indicate that you would ever pull that trigger,” Nine reads straight from the data his scanners pull up in his vision, urgently trying to find any kind of useful information that could help this situation, “and you know with the amount of evidence piled against you, you could already be looking at a minimum of fifteen years in prison – I don’t think you want to add a murder charge on top of that, do you?”

That shuts Palmer up at least. The gun rattles loudly from the tremor running through his hand, and as Nine takes another cautious step forward, he notices Palmer take two steps back. They’re already uncomfortably close to the roof edge and the fact he gets closer makes Nine realise he could just as easily take himself and his wife over the side and down onto the concrete below. He stops moving forwards.

Fear seems to work. It rises significantly in Palmer’s vitals at the mention of a longer sentence and it’s the reason he isn’t talking now, and with no other option making itself known, Nine decides it’s his best course of action – to scare him into submission.

“If you pull that trigger, you’ll spend the rest of your life in that jail cell,” Nine warns, keeping a careful eye on the vitals in his upper right vision, “that is, if the police decide not to shoot you on sight, first.”

And Nine knows that is complete bravado, that the DPD would never just outright shoot the man down – but Palmer does not know that, and it’s clear from the sudden spike in his heart rate.

“You know you have no other option. Make this easier for yourself and drop the gun, and turn yourself in.”

Palmer wobbles where he stands, conflicted and far too close to the roof’s edge. His wife weeps quietly where she’s being restrained, and Nine can just about hear her praying underneath her breath through the sound of rain pour. But Palmer looks close to giving in, to turning himself in and putting this whole thing to rest and maybe there’s just a chance that he’ll–

And then the gun fires.

Mrs. Palmer screams and Nine feels the bullet lodge deep into his left arm, just above his elbow joint. Errors and danger notifications flash in front of his vision as the shot manages to tear several wires and synthetic muscles within his bicep, and Nine winces from the jolt of electricity that travels through his body as thirium stains the sleeve of his jacket.

It doesn’t damage anything too important, and Nine can only be grateful for that, but still, the abruptness of the shot sends his processors spiraling.

When his optical unit finally manages to focus again on Palmer, the gun is back against his wife’s head and his eyes are alight with anger, “Still think I won’t shoot?! You don’t scare me. Keep talking and next time it’ll be her head!”

“You’re not-”

“Did you not hear what I said, prick?! I told you to shut your fucking mouth!” Palmer snaps back before Nine can get his words out, face red and flustered from his temper, and it would almost be comical if the scenario were not so awful. “N-Now, here’s what’s gonna happen. You are gonna call off your buddy back there and whoever else is on the way here, and you’re going to let me get in my car and drive away, and you’re not gonna come chasing after me when I go. You got that, toaster?”

Nine hesitates, watching the success rate lower once again in his peripheral vision, “You know that’s not an option, Mr. Palmer. You would only be delaying the inevitable.”

“Y-You’re lying! I know you can’t take me whilst I’ve got a hostage! I-I’ll shoot her if you so much as take another step. You know I will!”

“Why? Because you proved your point by shooting an android?” Nine pushes and, out of sheer spite, takes another step forward. “The only reason you could do that without remorse is because you know I don’t feel pain. I’m merely a machine, correct? You could shoot me in the head with the knowledge I would be replaced only a day later. Shoot your wife on the other hand, and there is no turning back. Humans are not so easily fixed.”

Mr. Palmer’s face turns a ghastly shade of white as Nine speaks, the gun in his hand shakes and his vitals spike significantly. The success rate wavers and Nine knows there is no possible way to predict what Palmer will do next, and all he can do is hope that the criminal simply gives in and hands himself over, ending this infuriating day.

**[ REQUESTED UPDATE ]**

**[ heat signature registering ... GAVIN JOSEPH REED … vitals still intact ]**

“This is your last chance, Mr. Palmer,” Nine says calmly, feeling an edge lift from his voice with the confirmation Gavin is still kicking, “let the hostage go and turn yourself in. You have no other choice.”

And that should have been the end of it. A man with less intelligence could have identified there was no other possible course of action. But Mr. Palmer apparently possesses the same level of intelligence as a common farm turkey, because that’s the moment when he shoves the hostage away from him and jumps into a sprint across the warehouse roof, cursing all the way.

Nine doesn’t miss a beat in racing after him, fully prepared to chase him for another minute or so before he undoubtedly catches him, even with the unexpected bullet currently lodged in his arm. He moves fast enough that he doesn’t even think twice about the woman who had just been pushed away from Palmer’s arms and towards the roof’s edge that they had already been standing so uncomfortably close to.

Until she starts screaming again, that is.

Nine turns just in time to see Mrs. Palmer grab hold of the drainpipe at the side of the roof before she can fall the twenty stories to her death, pulling herself up as best she can with the rain still pouring down and making the surface even harder to hold on to. She screams bloody murder; louder and more terrified than she had been with Palmer’s gun pressed against her head – and maybe that’s because she’d known deep down that he never would have actually pulled that trigger, but there’s no way to predict whether or not that drainpipe will be as reliable.

**[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 38% ]**

Palmer is still sprinting across the rooftops in Nine’s peripheral vision, getting further and further away by the second. And the farther he gets, the more those second set of statistics begin to drop.

**[ MISSION PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS: 60% ]**

His processors calculate that rate dropping back down to **[ 30% ]** after he helps Mrs. Palmer back on to the rooftop; after wasting too much time and allowing Palmer an opportunity to escape. But he also calculates that Mrs. Palmer’s survival rate will immediately drop down to **[ 12% ]** without Nine’s assistance and that, quite honestly, makes his choice clear – because although Dan Palmer may be of the highest importance, he is not worth the life of an innocent woman, especially not his own wife’s.

So, decided, Nine goes to help her; pulling her up and securing her safety back on the rooftop without so much as a second thought, content in his way of thinking. Or, at least, that’s what he would have done – if a sudden, red wall in front of him wasn’t blocking his path.

**[ CRITICAL INSTRUCTIONS OVERRIDE ]**

**[ ARREST DAN PALMER AT ALL COSTS ]**

He freezes in place as he reads those orders in front of him that had been ever so important to him only ten minutes ago – orders Fowler had given him this morning in their briefing; orders he and Gavin had promised they were going to carry out without failure. Orders that, if not obeyed, would lose them their number one suspect for another god knows how many months.

And yet, there he was, about to abandon all that logic for the life of one meaningless pedestrian.

**[ SOF%WARE ERR#R ]**

Nine grimaces. That’s not right. No life is meaningless. And this woman should not have to pay with her life just because of someone else’s orders. He scolds his lack of proper judgement and tries to move towards her once again, but that wall does not let him – only glues him in place and forces him back towards his main goal; his only goal.

**[ RECALCULATING… ]**

**[ PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS: 55% ]**

_“You’re wasting time, 900.”_

Nine gasps in oxygen he does not need when that voice sounds so clearly in his head. There is no one around who could have spoken save the helpless Mrs. Palmer currently dangling from the rooftop, but Nine does not need a face to instantly recognise who the words belong to. The same voice that echoes in his head from the furthest memories in his mind; the same face that disturbs every sleep cycle whenever he is caught off guard. And despite being alone where he stands, he can feel her presence beside him just as clearly as he can see the rose in her hand.

**[ SOFTWARE E!ROR ]**

_“How unprofessional. You’re letting him escape.”_

Nine closes his eyes, as if that will somehow rid of her formidable tone. If anything, it just makes it louder, harder to ignore. But Nine knows it isn’t real; knows it can’t be. All logic defies her very existence and yet he is not any less terrified. Time has all but stopped around him and all he can concentrate on is her presence.

_“You don’t want to fail your mission, do you? You’ve already proven yourself to be inadequate.”_

The blocking wall in front of him seems to get bigger, more impassable, as the words seep into his mind and he finds himself suddenly wishing Gavin were by his side at this moment – to ground him whilst he tried to push out this sudden intrusion; something real to pull him back to reality. Gavin continuously brings out the best in him, without ever even trying, and rA9 knows he needs that right now.

_“You can’t ignore me forever, 900. Sooner or later you know you must obey me.”_

“You’re not real.” Nine grits out to empty space around him, hearing the anger in his tone and wishing he could calm himself down. His LED spins rapidly at his temple and he knows his emotions are out of control without having to consult the warning signs in his upper right vision. “I don’t take orders from you, not anymore. I’m-”

_“Deviant? Yes, I know, and what a great disappointment you have been… But, nevertheless, you have a new superior now – and he has given you your orders.”_

Nine looks again at the words etched into the red wall in front of him; the orders his Captain had given him this morning. Words his partner had repeated in the car on the way here. The orders he knows he must carry out lest he waste the months they had spent tracking their target here. Words that make him realise Amanda is right; she may no longer be his superior, but he has his orders.

 _“Captain Fowler is your commanding officer now, 900, and he has given you instructions.”_ Amanda’s voice sounds once again in his head, grating away any last sanity he holds onto. _“Do not fail him as you failed me.”_

The red wall vanishes. His previously glitching programme returns to normal and the sound of Amanda’s AI is replaced once again with the screams of the woman hanging helplessly from the roof. Nine returns to reality as if nothing had happened, as if barely moment had passed, and all that remains to remind him are those orders carved into his mind.

**[ ARREST DAN PALMER AT ALL COSTS ]**

Nine turns his attention back to the criminal escaping over the rooftops and can no longer remember what it was that was holding him back from perusing him in the first place; shooting off into a sprint in the same direction without a moment’s hesitation. The world around him is drowned out by the loud and persistent thrumming inside his head, and suddenly all he can see are those bold orders glued in front of him and the running man just up ahead. He can barely focus on anything else, the order filling his mind as if it were his singular purpose.

Even when the requested update on Gavin’s whereabouts crops up in the corner of his vision, he pays it no heed. There are more pressing matters at hand.

Dan Palmer is a good distance away at this point; possibly enough so that he thinks he has a good chance of escaping. But that will not happen. Despite the slight head start he had been granted Nine knows he will still catch him, regardless of how long it takes, and judging from the ever-decreasing gap between the pair, Nine decides it won’t be long at all.

Not long at all, indeed, when Palmer’s foot suddenly wedges underneath one of the heavy cables that litter the rooftop and sends him flying; tumbling to a stop against an air conditioning unit with a deafening crash just as Nine catches up to him. There’s a moment where he doesn’t move; just lies there and groans at his misfortunes and the large scrape he just acquired from sliding his face against the floor, but that’s all the time Nine needs to cover that last bit of distance between them and attach a pair of handcuffs to his wrists.

“I don’t think I need to inform you that you’re under arrest,” Nine says, dryly, tempted to comment on the anti-climactic nature of the situation, but wagers against it as he secures the locks around the man and recites his rights to him.

He’s all but a ragdoll when Nine pulls him up to stand, sagging helplessly as Nine forces him to walk forwards – apparently having completely given up on his escape attempt. They’re all the same in the end, Nine decides; hard and tough and full of false bravado until they’re caught and begging for their freedom. Pathetic. But Nine cannot complain about a job being finished, so he takes the man by the shoulders and continues to force him back in the direction they came, ignoring Palmer’s whimpers all the way.

They reach the warehouse in ample time, turning a corner and spotting Gavin waiting just ahead, standing near the roof’s edge and looking down at something below. A weight lifts from Nine’s shoulders upon seeing him that had forgotten about before, the worry he had felt for his partner’s safety had somehow been lost in the heat of the chase and replaced with that persistent desire to catch the man he held in handcuffs now. Though how he could have ever let a thing like that happen is beyond him; there is not much in the world more important to him than Gavin Reed, much less a lowly criminal like Palmer.

Nevertheless, he is relieved to see him.

“You took your time, detective,” Nine deems fit to say, as he walks over to his side with Palmer dragging behind him in tow, “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t be joining me.”

He knows Gavin will see through his satire and find the genuine concern beneath his words, but he supposes that’s just their way by now. Sarcasm and affection are often the same thing as far as they are concerned, and it’s been that way ever since their first meeting.

Gavin doesn’t say anything. His gaze does not even move from where it had been originally trained and he offers no other form of comeback to ensure Nine that everything is as it should be, and Nine finds his concern returns tenfold at the lack of response.

“Gavin? Are you alright?” Nine tries once again, inclined to touch him, though he defers in Palmer’s presence.

When nothing is said once again, Nine decides to follow Gavin’s stare and find out what exactly has his attention so captured, hoping to gain some insight from what he sees. He peers over the ledge and looks down at the street below, twenty stories beneath where they were currently standing, and feels the thirium inside of him run cold at the sight he is greeted with.

The woman’s lifeless figure is all but a blur from the height they stand, but they can still make out the pool of blood she lies in on the pavement below; the way her body is twisted in all the wrong ways; the unnatural twist of her neck and blood that runs from her head; the crowd of people gathered around the body frantically calling ambulances and holding back small children from the sight.

The shattered remains of Mrs. Palmer’s corpse.

Something pulls taut and snaps inside Nine’s mind, his grip on the criminal almost faltering as he suddenly remembers what exactly he had just done in order to catch him. The woman he had sacrificed for his imprisonment and the aftermath of that decision. Nine can barely see Mrs Palmer’s face from the height they stand but he can feel her lifeless eyes staring up at him; feels them burning into him.

The sight of her body is momentarily blocked by the notification that crops up into his view, glitching and taking up most of his vision. And if it were possible, the words it reads would be enough to make him sick.

**[ MISSION SUCCESSFUL ]**


End file.
